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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes CC - 10/05/2015 - MINS 10 05 15 REG (Migrated from Optiview)Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 20 15 at 6:00 pm Page I of 18 This summary is provided as a convenience and service to the public, media, and staff It is not the intent to transcribe proceedings verbatim. Any reproduction of this summary must include this notice. Public co mm ents are noted and heard by Council, but not quoted. This document includes limited presentation by Council and invited speakers in summary form . This is an official record of the Milton City Council Meeting proceedings. Official Meetings are audio and video recorded. The Regular Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the City of Milton was held on October 5, 2015 at 6:00 PM, Mayor Joe Lockwood presiding. INVOCATION Remco Brommet, Chaplain for the City of Milton Police and Fire. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Joe Lockwood called the meeting to order. ROLLCALL Councilmembers Present: Councilmember Thurman, Councilmember Kunz , Councilmember Hewitt, Councilmember Longoria, and Councilmember Mohrig. Councilmember Absent: Councilmember Lusk. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (Led by Mayor Jo e Lockwood) APPROVAL OF MEETING AGENDA (Agenda Item No. 15-260) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Hewitt moved to approve the Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Kunz seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (6-0). Councilmember Lusk was absent from the meeting. PUBLIC COMMENT Jack Lindon, 14810 East Bluff Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 There are two things I wanted to mention tonight. The first is an announcement about Milton Grows Green's next activity -Rivers Alive Ri ver Cleanup. It will be held on October 17, 201 5. We have lots of volunteers for this event. The other thing I wanted to comment on is the ongoing discussion about changes to Conservation Subdivision Code and the changes that have been proposed. I went to the Community Zoning Informational meeting last week and looked at the current state of the proposed change. I am really pleased to see some of the things that are in that proposal such as the changes ------------~-----------1 Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 2 of 18 regarding the undisturbed buffers , setbacks , entrances to subdivisions and the addition of small space for conservational add. I think those are all great things. There was one thing I didn 't see in there that I would like for you to think about and consider. In talking to people around this community, the problem I hear most often, is whenever a development goes in everything seems to get cut down. I know there are tree ordinances and I also know there are ways around the tree ordinances. I would like to see something like an undisturbed buffer zone in each lot that is proposed in each subdivision. I do not know what that percentage would be , but if some percentage of each lot was designated as undisturbed , then that would eliminate the clear cutting that is taking place. Also , it would make the subdivisions look more like the subdivisions that were done in this community back in the 80's and 90 's. When you drive around town today you will see a lot of subdi v isions where the lots have areas that are heavily treed with obviously mature trees , they were not trees that were put in when the subdivisions was built. I am not sure why that happened then nor why it is not happening now, but if something could be done to make that happen again as these new subdivisions are being put in place , I think it would go a long way towards addressing the issues of the viewsheds , etc. that we see in our community. Chris Lagerbloom Jack , would you give us a quick update on MGG ? Jack Lindon We did a hazardous waste cleanup last Saturday. It was a huge success , particularly due to the fact we had horrible weather. We had over 250 attendees. I have not received the numbers from EcoFlow yet. At the time of the event we were keeping track of the intake and they said we were under what they thought the budgeted amount was , so we should not have any issue with that. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approval ofthe September 14 ,2015 Special Called City Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 15-252) (Deferr ed at th e S eptemb er 2 1, 2015 C ity Co un cil Mee ting) (S udie Gordon, C ity Clerk) 2. Approval ofthe September 14 , 2015 Work Session Council Meeting Minutes. (Agenda Item No. 15-261) (Sudie Gordon, C ity Clerk) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria mo ved to approve the Meeting Agenda. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (6-0). Councilmember Lusk was absent from the meeting. REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS 1. Proclamation Recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Councilm ember Kar en Th urman) Councilmember Karen Thurman It is my honor to present this proclamation recognizing that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the City of Milton. As many of you know this is very personal for me . Last year at this time , I was still recovering from my own breast cancer surgery, still waiting on test results in order to determine Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2 015 at 6 :00 pm Page 3 of 18 what the future plans were for the next stage of my reco very . I was one of the lucky ones. Mine was caught early. Over the past year my vocabulary has come to include terms like clear margins, triple negative and estrogen fed. These are terms that the wonderful healthcare professionals that treat cancer patients and the researchers are all too familiar with. One out of eight women will get breast cancer at some point in their life. One in three women will get some type of cancer and 43% of men will develop some type of cancer. Great strides are continuing to be made in both the early detection and treatment for all cancers. The purpose of this proclamation is simply to continue to bring awareness to the early detection and research to further treatment of breast cancer. I would like to say a special "Thank You" to Lindsey Harber of North Fulton Hospital , Susan Castella of Northside Forsyth Hospital and Alisha Sylvestri , Breast Cancer Surviv or who works with the Milton High School Athletic Department, for coming tonight. FIRST PRESENTATION 1. Consideration ofRZ15-14/U15-04NC15-03-3503 and 3505 Bethany Bend by Wisdarium, LLC-To Rezone from 0-1 (Office-Institutional) and AG-1 (Agricultural) to 0-1 (Office- Institutional) and a Use Permit for a Private School (Sec. 64-1831) to Expand the Existing School from 2 ,000 Square Feet to 8,000 Square Feet for up to 150 Students. A Two-part Concurrent Variance to Reduce the 50 Foot Undisturbed Buffer and 10 Foot Improvement Setback to a 20 Foot Landscape Strip along the North Property Line [Sec. 64-1091(a)] and to Reduce the 100 Foot Setback for Recreation Areas to 20 Feet along the North Property Line [Sec. 64-1831 (b)( 4)]. (Agenda Item No. 15-262) (Kathlee n Field, Co mmunity Developm en t Director) 2 . Consideration of an Ordinance to Amend Appendix A , Parks and Recreation Fees and Other Charges , Chapter 34, Section 24 of The Milton City Code. (Agenda Item No. 15-263) (J im Cregge, Parks and Recreation Direct or) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Kunz moved to approve the First Presentation Items. Councilmember Thurman seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously ( 6-0). Councilmember Lusk was absent from the meeting. PUBLIC HEARING (No ne) ZONING AGENDA (No ne) ----------------------- Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 4 of 18 UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. Consideration to Adopt the Impact Fee Ordinance and to Create Chapter 25 "Impact Fees" in the City Code of Ordinances. ORDINANCE NO. 15-10-259 (Agenda Item No. 15-257) (Discussed at September 14, 2015 City Council Work Session) (First Presentation at September 21, 2015 Regular City Council Meeting) (Kathleen Fi eld, Community Development Director) PUBLIC COMMENT Chelsea Hagood, 751 Piedmont Avenue NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 I am with the Council for Quality Growth. I would like to provide some input on the Impact Fee Ordinance and Schedule. We were very encouraged by Ms. Field's recommendation at the Work Session to reduce the Parks and Recreation fee by 50% for the first year and allow the staff to revisit the Parks and Recreation Master Plan during your full comprehensive planning process next year. We think this is especially important because the Impact Fee revenue can only fund a fraction of the improvements outlined in the plan and cannot go towards any maintenance or operational costs that will come out of building these new parks. Also , by charging these fees at the maximum amount, which would be the highest in the North Fulton region, the city and the existing residence would be obligated to allocate that additional funding to follow through with implementation of the entire Parks and Recreation Master Plan. So that being said , we would like to strongly and respectfully, urge you to consider the recommendation to reduce the fees by 50% and allow the staff and residents to revisit the Parks Plan to prioritize projects based on how they can and must be funded to provide the greatest benefit to the community without placing a higher cost burden on new residents and the development community versus the existing residents. Dean Cowart, 6365 Stallion Drive, Cumming, Georgia 30040 I am here to second the Council for Quality Growth comments that were just stated. I am a builder/developer in the community and I would encourage you to follow the recommendations of Ms. Field about evaluating the Impact Fee and possibly starting off at a lower rate. I believe I emailed you all regarding my concern about the matter. Not dissimilar to codes in the building industry, there is a phasing in of those things where anticipating items coming in the horizon. This Impact Fee Ordinance is particularly hitting me in mid-stream of a project and it's difficult to evaluate and underwrite a project when your rules are changing along the way. I want to encourage you to consider possibly phasing this in over a set time as opposed to going right into this Impact Fee on residential development community. Lennie Sheumaker, 5784 Lake Forrest Drive, Atlanta, Georgia 30328 I am here representing the Atlanta Board of Realtors and the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. Between our two boards we have over 9,000 realtor members who operate a 14 county area of the metro Atlanta region. And we are here to echo the suggestions of the Council for Quality Growth. Although, we totally respect the desire of the City of Milton for the Impact Fee Structure, we frown upon the imposing of the maximum fees allowable for this kind of structure. To go from zero to the maximum fees allowable by law seems a little dramatic for us and may have some sticker shock on the real estate community. Our concerns are that this may deter applicants from bringing quality housing and development to the City of Milton and such projects will instead end up benefiting competing communities, expanding their tax bases and resources, as opposed to the City of Milton's. We also feel Regular Meeting of the Milton Ci ty Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6 :00 pm Page 5 of 18 that this unfairly burdens those who are truly committed to investing into this community: the ones building houses , the one building developments , the ones moving here , the ones staying here , the ones upgrading one's home. It is these citizens who have decided to move here or decided to reinvest here that are going to be paying these fees. We also fear that the Impact Fee revenue , as it is , cannot be used to fund the maintenance and operations or the placements of the Parks and Rec projects. We worry what is going to happen after it has been constructed and what the funding would look like for its maintenance. It is the realtors hopes that a more restrained Impact Fee structure can be considered allowing Milton to generate the necessary funding for these projects, without the sticker shock to the real estate community, that the maximum allowable fees is likely to create. David Ellis, 3795 Hedgecliff Court, Alpharetta, Georgia 30022 I am the executive Vice President of the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association. We spoke a few weeks ago and some of our same concerns are here tonight. The fees are a way to fund infrastructure but as they are implemented, they go to the maximum level , which is going to have a real chilling effect on what good things could happen in Milton. Not only on the residential side of things but on the commercial side , as well. I know we want to bring in good commercial de velopment and when you start extrapolating the numbers from what the effect will be on commercial it can also be very problematic , as well. As was mentioned in the last meeting, Ms. Field 's suggestion of 50% reduction on the Parks and to revisit that plan to make sure it is appropriate for what we believe can happen here at Milton long term , is a good approach and lets us go forward with these fees. Again, we join our friends in the real estate community with the Council for Quality Growth and the Association of Realtors in asking you to look at some type of phasing in of these fees as we move forward. Jack Lindon, 14810 East Bluff Road, Milton, Georgia 30004 I am writing in support of the proposed impact fee ordinance. There appears to be little question about , or opposition to , the adoption of an Impact Fee Ordinance. This is certainly a fair way to help pay for all the additional costs imposed on the city by our recent massive increase in housing development. The only debate seems to be on the amount of the fee . I have read the consultants reports carefully and all the fees discussed , including those associated with the increased need for Parks and Recreation facilities , are , in my view, well justified. I believe that the increases in Parks and Recreation costs will constitute the most significant burden imposed by our burgeoning population. For these reasons I strongly support the adoption ofthe Impact Fee Ordinance at the 100 % level recommended by our consultants. Kathleen Field, Community Development Director We are here to continue the discussion on Impact Fees. Bill Ross is here as well. First , I would like to clarify that when we had our discussion last , I did bring forth an option that you can consider in terms of lowering the amount on the Parks and Rec category. I want to clarify it was not a recommendation. Staff is cognizant of the fact that is a policy decision to be made by the City Council. Secondly, there is a change in this ordinance from the first read to the second read . Specifically it deals with the Exemption Section, page 11. The Exemption Section in the first read did have specific language on the exemption policy . To refresh you , the exemption speaks to outstanding economic development projects that you may want to exempt from impact fees . As our consultant explained, with any exemption the funds that are exempted need to be paid by the City of Milton, if an exemption is granted. There was not a lot of specificity in this exemption section and I felt rather than opening up this ordinance again to insert exemption language , that it would be more appropriate to insert the language now. So accordingly , I worked with our consultant and our city attorney to generalize the exemption policy language and inserted the process for approval for an exemption, as well as , the criteria that would be used for consideration of an exemption. I would suggest the language be inserted as it is currently Re g ular Meetin g of the Milton Ci ty Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 6 of 18 shown , that way it would be in place and not have to go back at a later date and insert it. With that , our consultant is here and we are both available to answer any questions you may have on this ordinance. Mayor Lockwood I had mentioned early on in the discussion oflmpact Fees , that I liked the idea that if we did have impact fees in order to help with conservation or less density , that maybe we could use that as an exemption or bonus for a developer or property owner to possibly be exempt from the impact fees if they were to decrease their density in some way. If it is in the best interest of the public ; is it broad enough that it could be included ? How would we address something like that ? Bill Ross, Ross + Associates These exemptions are extraordinary . Most of the benefits and particular the one you are talking about would actually be calculated as a credit. The credit section of the ordinance is calculated to the extent that anyone is doing something that is going to reduce the demand for services on the city; a credit can be granted on that basis. During our last presentation, we used the example that if someone was going to build on a three acre lot with conservation easements , etc., then the credit can be calculated if the applicant agrees ; that is the charge , you wouldn 't owe anything to pay it back because that is the real fee that has been recalculated for that property . Most of those types of things will come out through the credit process. The exemption process is something that you just don 't anticipate ; it is of such value to the city that it is worth having the existing taxpayers support and help pay for it because there is a big public benefit to you . Only you can decide what those benefits may be. I think you will see exemptions requested on far fewer instances than credits will be calculated as we go along. Mayor Lockwood Kathy , have you run additional numbers based on percentages? Kathy Field Yes , Chris will pass those out. Councilmember Hewitt Will you please remind me again when the fee is collected? For example , a residential subdivision is being constructed. Do we collect the fee at the time of the Land Disturbance Permit and there are "X" amount of lots or is it at the time that a building permit is obtained for each home that is being built? When is the fee collected ? Bill Ross The Impact Fee is assessed ; remember assess ing and collecting are two different things. The Impact Fee is assessed when a building permit is issued. The person getting the building permit has the option to pay the Impact Fee right then and there or to defer payment up to and before an interior finishes permit, a build out permit, or a certificate of occupancy is requested. You will get both types of people. There will be people who want to pay it up front so they don 't have to come back to the city a second time and others will want to defer the payment prior to the CO being obtained. Councilmember Hewitt So , it is assessed and paid for per unit? Bill Ross Yes . Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 7 of 18 Councilmember Mohrig As other cities have looked at Impact Fees or other counties, could you please explain the phased-in approach? I have been listening to folks and trying to get it to make sense about where we are today and going full speed ahead with Impact Fees. Can you tell me about how the phased-in approach has worked in the industry? Bill Ross Very few , in fact, I can only think of one that attempted a phased-in approach and in a rather short period of time they forgot that they were phasing it in. Most folks just adopt whatever it is they are going to adopt and from time to time they revisit those fees. And, if they adopt them at a lower percentage, they have the opportunity to raise them at any time. It is just an amendment to the Impact Fee Ordinance to replace attachment A current with new attachment A at a later date. So, you can phase them in but you can 't do it automatically . You have to revise the Impact Fee Ordinance because the fee schedule is right in the ordinance and you can't automatically amend that. You have to take action to adopt a new fee schedule. Councilmember Mohrig So , if we did in fact want to go in the phase-in direction, we could set the initial fee at a certain level and then revisit it on an annual basis or whatever and approach it that way? Bill Ross Certainly. Councilmember Thurman In order for us to amend the ordinance , what exactly would it require? Would it require several meetings? City Attorney Jarrard It would depend upon the extent of the modification particularly if you are adding components to the tax. You would have to set up the advisory committee like you did for the first go around; however, if it is a lesser modification then it is just an ordinary ordinance modification process. Councilmember Thurman So, if you just wanted to start off at 50% now and plan on adjusting it in to 100% at a later date , would that be a major one where you would have to re-do it or since we have already had the advisory committee look at it at that level , could we just six months or a year from now go up to the 100% level. City Attorney Jarrard You could do that as an ordinary ordinance modification. Councilmember Thurman So , it would not require multiple meetings , etc. City Attorney Jarrard No, not at the same level of formalities that you have already been through. Councilmember Hewitt If this was to go through this evening, would it be effective tomorrow or when is the effective date? ----------------------------------~ Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 20 15 at 6:00 pm Page 8 of 18 Mayor Lockwood Does it have to go into effect immediately or can we wait? Bill Ross You can set the "to be effective date." I think there is a blank space in the ordinance and it can be filled in with whatever date you would like it to become effective. Kathy Field If you desire , we are prepared to begin tomorrow or an y date you decide upon. City Attorney Jarrard I have seen it done both ways. I have seen it done with an immediate effect and I have seen it done with some lag time. Councilmember Kunz I have a question for Sarah LaDart. On the commercial side , have we had any opinions regarding this whatsoever? Sarah LaDart The only comments I have heard are from residential developers. Councilmember Longoria I would agree that some of these numbers are big but at the same time there was a very lengthy and logical process that we went through to derive these fees and they represent the impact that these kinds of projects have on the city and our resources . If we are having issues with some of the size of these fees, we need to go back and look at our long term plans and what we are trying to accomplish. We need to ask ourselves if we have set the bar correctly ; are we doing the right things? I would think we have answered those questions and come up with the correct numbers because we have spent a lot of time on this issue. Councilmember Hewitt When we formed the city , we went from zero to sixty overnight. When our citizens responded to our survey , parks and recreation and roads were the number one priorities of our citizens. It becomes a quality of life issue. Councilmember Mohrig If someone has a project that has already begun and is in the works , do the fees begin to apply to those existing projects? City Attorney Jarrard Whenever you begin to collect the fees , yes , that is true. I have heard concerns from another jurisdiction that several big projects did not take into consideration impact fees at the time of funding because they didn 't exist at the time the project began. Councilmember Longoria So , we have two opportunities to change Impact Fees on a project by project basis or whatever unit we want to look at and that is through the credit process and also through the exemption process. Do we cause problems for ourselves if credits or exemptions are a regular occurrence? Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 9 of 18 City Attorney Jarrard I can only speak from my experience which is that routine credits are more likely and exemptions are very unusual. So , these are policy constructs built into your ordinance and my advice would be that if you are going to begin looking at these on a case by case basis , you should focus on credits and leave exemptions for the truly extraordinary circumstances. Councilmember Longoria I would agree with you since that is what we heard from our consultant. However, let's pretend we go through 50 permits in the first six months and every permit receives a credit; have we somehow weakened the city 's position in terms of how we manage the impact fee system or would that example be viewed as usual and customary? City Attorney Jarrard My personal opinion, I would not see that as customary. Bill Ross The credits are not a give-away program ; they are a recalculation of what the builder actually owes; what their real fee should be. It is generally a reduction because they are , for example , helping build the road instead of paying the fee , etc. You are not losing anything. The fee goes down because they are doing something for the city which has value. Councilmember Kunz Is there a grandfather system where current projects would not be subject to the impact fees since they have already established their budgets at the beginning of the project? City Attorney Jarrard There is grandfathering language in the ordinance that provides that the portion of a project for which a valid building permit has been issued prior to the effective date of impact fees shall not be subject to development impact fees so long as construction is ongoing. Kathy Field If a developer has not obtained a building permit then they are not in the process. Councilmember Kunz I think the discrepancy with the process is that developers have already established their financial model at the beginning of a project; however, a building permit is not obtained until later into the project. Therefore, impact fees were not accounted for since the city did not have impact fees at the time the financial models were established. Kathy Field That is correct. When you are ready for the building permit you are fairly far down the road in terms of the development process. Councilmember Hewitt I think what we can do to help mitigate some of that is to put a date out in the future , i.e. 30, 60 days , etc. before it goes into effect. --------------------------~ Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 10 of 18 Councilmember Thurman I think if we do that, we will have a run on building permits ... Councilmember Hewitt For the people who are ready to obtain a permit. Councilmember Thurman I think we are better off having impact fees effective immediately at a lesser percentage for the Parks and Recreation with the intent at a later date increasing those fees to whatever we feel like they need to be to meet our comprehensive plan goals . You have to remember , these are expenses we are going to incur as a city because of new development. Councilmember Longoria Exactly , and we calculated the values precisely. It wasn 't like we just grabbed the numbers out of the air. I worry about any kind of discount that we give. If we take the amount that we know we have to collect and cut it in half, it is as if we are saying that we are only interested in delivering half the services . That does not make any sense. Councilmember Longoria Is the plan that we calculated these amounts on "our plan" or a concept that we had at the time and we just called it our plan. Bill Ross It is the city 's adopted plan with the level of services that you adopted . Councilmember Hewitt I understand the point Joe is making ; it is arbitrary to go in at a 50%, 75%, or 67% collection rate. Councilmember Longoria Either we believe in the numbers or we don 't. If we don 't believe in the numbers then we need to step back and recalculate them. We are telling our citizens that we calculated the fees based on the plans that we want to enact. If we don 't really believe that then we should not be voting on these fees. Are we voting on both of these issues; to implement impact fees and the amounts that have been presented to us tonight ? City Attorney Jarrard It is all one vote. Whether or not to have impact fees and the fee schedule that has been presented. Councilmember Mohrig I have been a proponent of impact fees even before we became a city because I saw what happened in the part of the city where I live . We have apartment complexes and other types of density housing which has a greater impact on the city . We didn 't get the traffic improvements , etc. that would have been funded by impact fees if the y had existed at the time. I understand that the amounts we have been given tonight are the maximum amounts that we can collect; however, I would like to suggest that we do not start out collecting the maximum amount but we revisit the fees on an annual basis . Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm Page II of 18 Councilmember Thurman I don't think it would hurt us to revisit what our plans are that drove these impact fee amounts. We know that if we only collect 50% of the impact fee for parks and recreation that we are still under what it will actually cost us to build out what we need. Councilmember Kunz I agree. I know we have the strategic plan but the tactics we want to use to get there we need to be flexible. As much as we have our assets , we have to remember this is still about people and I want to make sure that we work with the people that are going to be working in our community. I think that a graduation process; no one is opposed to us implementing impact fees in the future, but there could be a shock to the system that may impact some people more than we could imagine based on financial models. I worry about having impartial subdivisions based on the process that they follow and all of a sudden they have to change their financial models or create a lesser product half way through the process. I wouldn 't want to see that happen. I am okay with graduating the fees but how we get there we will have to decide. Councilmember Longoria I just want to remind everybody that we have a lot of park and recreation work that needs to be done in the coming years. If you go back to the citizen surveys that we conducted in the past three or four years , the number one thing that citizens gave us feedback on was the lack of parks and recreation facilities in the city. We are lucky we get to use other facilities that are nearby , but in terms of the city , we don't have very much. So , this is real expense that the city had planned to have in order to develop the parks and recreation resources that we have agreed to put in place. These facilities are either undeveloped or in the planning stages. We calculated the impact fees based on a plan that we put together to implement creating the facilities that the citizens have asked for. I have a problem saying that we went through the work and analysis to come up with the fee amounts and we are just going to discount them. That does not make sense to me. We have been talking about impact fees for a year. Nothing in this process tonight should be a surprise to anybody. If we have not come up with the correct amounts and we are basing our impact fees on something that was more of a pipe dream than reality, then we need to step back and recalculate the fee schedule. Mayor Lockwood These amounts are based on a long term plan that we wanted to implement anyway. Impact fees are an avenue to pay for the planned improvements. Keep in mind, the citizens that completed the survey and asked for more parks and recreations facilities are not necessarily paying for the improvements. The burden is being put on all the new people moving to the city. Everyone will pay taxes but not necessarily impact fees. Councilmember Kunz If we do a graduation process at 50% and revisit it in six months , I haven't done the math, but is there any idea from staff of what we will miss? City Manager Lagerbloom $3 ,200 per house. Councilmember Kunz How many houses do you think we will miss out on in six months? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 12 of 18 City Manager Lagerbloom There is really no way to guess that Councilmember Kunz At the rate we are going right now we have 900 houses under construction. City Manager Lagerbloom Right now, residential permits issued year-to-date is 339. Kathy Field We have had a surge over the last two weeks. We have had about 50 requests for residential permits during the past two weeks. City Manager Lagerbloom The biggest expense that we will have is the trail expansion. Trails were the number one request that our citizens had on our survey. Bill Ross In 2035, the city will be completely built out So, the plan we are talking about tonight is a twenty year plan. At the end of twenty years, whatever improvements you have made is what the city will look like. Impact fees will no longer exist after twenty years because at that point the city is done; it is not able to make additional improvements. The land will be used up. Councilmember Longoria If our ability to change our taxes to help support the work that we want to do for Parks and Recreation or anything else is that we have to put it on a ballot and the citizens have to vote for it in terms of changing our millage rate, which is one of the challenges that we have, I thought that was why impact fees gave us a certain amount of flexibility to address real costs that we are experiencing in order to deliver the services that our citizens are demanding from us without having to change the millage rate. Since these impact fees represent the actual amounts that these projects will cost in regard to the city's resources, it seemed like a very equitable concept A person is only paying for the impact that they have on the city's resources. It makes sense for us to agree that is why we put the impact fees in place in the first place. So, we need to adopt them. Otherwise, we are out of sync with ourselves. I have a real problem saying, "Well, I know we calculated a fee to be a certain amount and that really represents the cost but , you know what, we are not going to do that, we are going to do something else." It seems as if we have lost sight of what we set out to do. Mayor Lockwood In all due respect, I would disagree a little bit because when you call it an impact fee, if it is actually infrastructure as in road repair, etc. but, for example, parks and recreation and the trail plan is a positive that everyone will be able to enjoy, not just the citizens from this point forward. We may be capped at our millage rate, but if you go to the year 2035, we are going to have twice as many homes here so our revenue will double as well. Councilmember Longoria The impact fees do not represent the entire cost They only represent the cost that is contributed from each individual project whether it is an apartment complex or individual home. So, we are not asking Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 13 of 18 for something more than what a citizen should pay. We are saying that the citizens that already live in the city have already paid taxes to get to this point. Bill Ross There is even more money that you will have to look to the existing tax base to pay because the level of service will be higher than what you have now. So , the citizens that live here today will pay their fair share toward those improvements. Future development will pay their fair share. That is the key to the program , "fair share." I heard somebody say earlier that the cost burden was greater on future development than existing taxpayers; that is not true. The whole concept behind impact fees is that everyone only pays their fair share. Motion: Councilmember Thurman made a motion to approve the adoption of the Impact Fee Ordinance and to Create Chapter 25 "Impact Fees" in the City Code of Ordinances, Agenda Item No. 15-257 as presented by staff and to be effective immediately except for the Parks & Recreation Fee at 50% of the Fee Schedule (Attachment A) of the Ordinance with the thought that we will look at this in three to six months. Second: Councilmember Kunz seconded the motion. Clarification to the Motion: Councilmember Thurman moved to clarify the date of April1 , 2016, which is six months and will give us time to look at our Parks & Recreation projected costs and make sure it 's where we need to be. Second: Councilmember Kunz seconded Councilmember Thurman 's original motion and clarification. Discussion: Councilmember Hewitt stated he supports the Impact Fees but would like to see them all at 1 00%. Councilmember Longoria agreed . Vote: The motion with clarification passed ( 4 -2), with Councilmember Hewitt and Longoria in opposition. (Councilmember Bill Lusk was absent from the meeting). NEW BUSINESS (No ne) ADMINISTRATIVE HEARING RELATED TO ALCOHOL LICENSE 1. Administrative Hearing Regarding the Possible Suspension or Revocation of the Alcohol License for C.C.E. Group, Inc., d/b/a Montana 's Bar & Grill Located at 13695 Highway 9, Milton, Georgia 30004 . (Agenda Item No. 15-258) (Def erred at th e S eptember 2 1, 2 015 City Cou ncil Mee ting) (Chris Lagerb/oom , City Mana ger) Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager This issue came before you previously and Mr. Eubank was here and asked for a couple of days to obtain his business license. He did obtain the license and is in compliance with all the necessary Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00 pm Page 14 of 18 licensing , both the business license and the alcohol license , which are needed to continue operating his restaurant. My suggestion is that we issue a formal warning that he comply with all of the necessary licensing in the future within the allotted time frame and deadlines that are given by the city. Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved that we issue a "warning" to C.C.E. Group , Inc., d/b/a Montana's Bar & Grill located at 13695 Highway 9 , Milton, Georgia 30004 in the case of Agenda Item No. 15-258 . Councilmember Mohrig seconded the motion. The motion passed (6-0). Councilmember Lusk was absent from the meeting . MAYOR AND COUNCIL REPORTS STAFF REPORTS Department Updates 1. Police 2. Public Works 3. Parks and Recreation 4. Community Development 5. Economic Development Carter Lucas, Assistant City Manager Bell Memorial Park Weather did not permit us to open the park on our originally scheduled date of October 3rd. We have been diligently working this week and anticipate having the fields available to us on October lOth. We will complete work on the core areas of the park such as the fields , concession stand , etc. We will continue working on the outer areas of the park such as the trails , etc. We are planning to have the ribbon cutting on Saturday, October lOth. City Hall Project We are moving forward with construction documents. We have been pushing through with some value engineering through our design development documents. We are now moving from design development to construction documents which we hope to have completed by the middle of December. New South is our contractor and we will be working on the bidding process . We anticipate moving into the new city hall in February 2017 and beginning operations in April 2017. Crabapple Northwest Connector Road Project with GDOT This project is currently out to bid. GDOT will get bids back in two weeks around October 16th. We will have an idea about funding strategies as soon as we see the bids. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 20 15 at 6:00 pm Page 15 of 18 Deerfield at Webb Project This will consist of turn lane improvements; installation of left turn lane on the three approaches that are not there currently. This project is out to bid and we will get them back on October 2ih. Pavement Management It is coming to a close for this year. We have two more projects to go: Providence Road in front of Summit Hill Elementary School and Broadwell Road improvements. Striping will occur in the areas that have received new pavement and patching. Birmingham/Hopewell Roundabout We are diligently working on getting all of the utilities relocated. As soon as that occurs, we will be able to move forward a little faster. Steven Krokoff, Police Chief It has been an interesting six months as I have worked toward being a certified Police Chief in the state of Georgia. We are starting an Explorer Program for the police department. Andy Noblett is heading up this program. He is working with some of the other local municipalities that already have Explorer Programs that could be feeder programs for ours. The program offers great opportunities for our community, specifically our youth, who have an interest in the criminal justice field. It creates great relationships. The officers get involved with the youth and do real life police activities and competitions. They would wear uniforms and be at events like the Crabapple Fest. It really brings together the police department and its community. We are reaching out to the community to see the level of interest in this program. We are working with both Cambridge and Milton High Schools. We want to make sure we will have enough interest to make the program viable. It appears that, preliminarily, we have quite a lot of interest. We hope to have very little budgetary impact while creating this program since it was not budgeted in the 2016 budget. In addition, I have been working with the U.S. Attorney, John Hom, on a project to reduce the effects of opioid addiction and abuse in the metro Atlanta area. He has put together a very impressive group of local law enforcement and public health officials, etc. I have been very involved in this and organized the legislative sub-group. We are meeting tomorrow morning in Atlanta to talk about strategies to be able to reduce the impact this addiction is having on our communities. We are hoping to get more of the drug that reverses the effects of a person who has overdosed out to our paramedics and first responders. We are also looking at ways to reduce the supply of opioids in the black market. Jim Cregge, Parks and Recreation Providence Park I would like to report a success story at Providence Park that occurred two weeks ago. Approximately 30 Boy Scouts and Leaders from Troop 3000 took on the project of renovating the southwest trail , which went from the maintenance building all the way to the amphitheater. They made quite an effort to improve that facility. This is one of several Scout projects that we are going to be doing at Providence Park. We greatly appreciate Troop 3000. This particular project was led by Matthew Rech, 17 year old Milton High School student, who is working on his Eagle Scout. As part of an Eagle Scout project you must raise funds to cover costs. In this case, Matthew far exceeded the amount he raised compared to what he exactly spent on the project, so he donated the remainder ($493) to the city . We put this money into a fund for projects that are coming up at Providence Park. Overall , it was a huge success. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 16 of 18 Recreation Manager Job I would also like to thank you all for the support in this year 's budget of changing the Recreation Coordinator into a Recreation Manager position. We have the job posted and are getting quite a bit of activity with it. I feel we will have a very qualified person in place very soon. Basketball Program We are currently working out our details for a winter basketball program. We have been having some challenges with some of the schools in the area. We have an increasing demand for basketball but unfortunately not an increase in space to hold these kids , so that is presenting some challenges to us. Camp Joyful Souls The Principal at Hopewell Middle School has invited us back for next summer. We are very grateful to Community Christ Church for opening their doors to us last year but the middle school is a better fit for the needs of this camp. We have already confirmed one of the supervisors to come back next year as well. Bell Memorial Park We have received and are currently reviewing the RFP for Bell Memorial Park maintenance. This is the maintenance inside the fields , the four ball fields and the two rectangular fields. That was a 30 day RFP. We will be getting RFP's back this Thursday for the concession stand operator. Chris Lagerbloom, City Manager They will have the crane and the piece of public art at the park for installation, Thursday morning at I 0:30 , if anyone wants to see that part of the park expansion. Kathleen Field, Director of Community Development There are several items I would like to make you aware of that will be coming before you: Conservation Subdivision Ordinance It is scheduled for the agenda ofNovember 16,2015. Impact Fee Ordinance You approved this tonight. We will start collections tomorrow morning. Five Year City's 2030 Comprehensive Plan I am very pleased to say as of tonight we have accomplished everything that was listed in that five year plan. Tomorrow we kick off the new five year plan. The staff members from the ARC will be helping us with that plan and it is our intent with their assistance , to do this in house. Rezoning Montessori School at 3503-3505 Bethany Bend-expanding the school-October 19th 13605 Bethany Road-requesting a use permit for a retreat using an existing house-November 16th 13201 Deerfield Parkway-due to refinancing an apartment is requesting to revert back from the form based code zoning to the original zoning -December 21 st Text Amendments These amendments deal with enhancing single family zoning districts to increase the rural view shed and other conservation activities. These will be coming before you at the November 16th meetin g_ Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 17 of 18 We also have a consideration to create a new use permit for alternative housing for seniors in the AG-1 and some of the other single family districts. We have started meeting with representatives of seniors to sort through what type of housing they will prefer. This will be coming on December 21st. Also on December 21 st, we are mending the sign ordinance based on the recent Supreme Court's decision. Sara LaDart, Economics Development Manager Innovation Center I would like to update you on the Innovation Center. I met with V erizon about six weeks ago to discuss if they would allow us some space for free. We would call it the Verizon Innovation Center in the City of Milton. They were very open to the idea but are a little concern with security. He was going back to his team to discuss it further. South by Southwest trip I was asked to be on the executive committee of the South by Southwest trip. We have a $295 ,000 budget for that trip for all of the metro Atlanta cities and governments. Circle Interactive Circle Interactive is a new company here in Milton. They have a new technology that is a wristband that will be used at the new Raiders stadium in Los Angles. You will not need a ticket anymore for the game because it will be loaded on this wristband along with your credit card information. In 2016 , they are looking to hire 15 -20 employees with a range of $65 ,000 -$100 ,000 salaries. Breast Cancer event North Fulton Hospital Power of Pink event was held a couple of weeks ago. We raised $50 ,000 for breast cancer research and all that money will stay in Atlanta at Susan G. Koman of metro Atlanta. Economic Development Summit Karen was involved in Economic Development Summit that Progress Partners hosted. She was on the panel and we had over 200 attendees. This will begin to be an annual event with Progress Partners and the Council for Quality Growth. Progress Partners have employed Market Street to do a market study to see what role Progress Partners can have in the Economic Development departments within the city. Regular Meeting of the Milton City Council Monday, October 5, 2015 at 6:00pm Page 18 of 18 ADJOURNMENT (Agenda Item No. 15-264) Motion and Vote: Councilmember Longoria moved to adjourn the Regular Meeting at 7:45 p.m . Councilmember Hewitt seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously (6-0). Councilmember Lusk was absent from the meeting. Date Approved: November 2, 2015 Joe Loc